"Faith Contested"

"For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth." (Psalms 74:12) I can't imagine what it might be like to be without the Lord, especially going through something as harsh as this. But when you have Jesus in the midst of it all, there is really nothing to worry about; nothing can come against us that the Lord can't turn for the good, absolutely nothing! Currently my son is in the hospital and they have him in an induced coma, after having performed two operations on his brain. I haven't taken much effort over these last six years to take care of my son, mostly because he doesn't take much effort in taking care of himself. When my wife got injured back in 2003, I pretty much kicked him out of the house and focused on taking care of my wife. He was almost 25 at the time, so I thought it was time he moved out on his own. I have kept him in a rented house for the last 6 years or so; and I am currently working on getting him situated into another home, once he gets out of rehab, whenever that might be. The Lord surely works in mysterious ways, that's for sure. You pray for God to do something to wake somebody up, and He causes them to go to sleep. How all that works out, we only can hope for some kind of powerful intervention and God's mighty grace. But, it's times like this where the rubber meets the road when it comes to our faith. Really, faith that is not tested, really has no way of being used. I mean, how do you know what your faith is made of, if you never get a chance to stretch it out. Can it even stretch at all? You will never know until it gets stretched! I do not claim to have all the answers, none of us do; but this much I know, that God does! He knows every little hair on our heads, every little ache in our body, and every little tear that we've ever shed. Don't you think for a moment He does not know what you are going through, because He is right there, going through it with us! I think I understand that video I watched with the runner, because it's not about the runner's determination to finish the race, it's about the father's desire to help. The father, who sees his son fall during the race, then watches him get up and hop towards the finish line, rushes out to his son, saying, "You don't need to do this, son." But the son responds, "Yes, dad, I need to finish this race!" Then the dad responds, "Okay, if you're going to do this, then we will do it together!" Whether we give up, or press forward, God is always by our side! Oh, He wants us to finish well, that's for sure; but if we are hurting, then He is right there to help us in our pain, and He even encourage us to rest; and if we are determined to continue, then He is right there to give us His strength, His guidance and His encouragement to help us press forward, despite the pain...
"And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News. For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God's message without fear. It's true that some preach out of jealousy and rivalry. But other preach about Christ with pure motives. They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. But that doesn't matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice. For I know that as you pray for me and the Spirit of Jesus Christ helps me, this will lead to my deliverance. For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better." (Philippians 1:12-21) NLT